“Who, what, where, why and when?” are the essential questions at the heart of every homicide investigation – for detectives but also for journalists chasing the 360-degree story. Investigative correspondent Chris Hansen knows the routine all too well, having won eight Emmy awards for investigative reporting, outstanding coverage of a news story and outstanding coverage of breaking news. Now, in Investigation Discovery’s all-new newsmagazine KILLER INSTINCT WITH CHRIS HANSEN, he brings his unrivalled journalistic skills and criminal insight to an enthralling new series, digging deep into the depths of a killer’s mind and bringing life to some of America’s most chilling and heart-wrenching homicide cases. KILLER INSTINCT WITH CHRIS HANSEN premieres on Monday, August 17 at 10/9c only on Investigation Discovery (ID).

“ID viewers can’t get enough of our signature investigative newsmagazines, so we’re particularly delighted to welcome Chris’ own distinctive voice to our stable of truly talented journalists,” said Henry Schleiff, Group President at Discovery. “KILLER INSTINCT taps into Chris’ trademark technique of taking viewers along for the ride, allowing them to experience every dramatic jolt and shock while sharing in Chris’ own passionate search for the truth.”

Hansen is no stranger to crime investigation. His reports have stirred interest in both national and international issues, but his award-winning, breakthrough investigative reporting involving online sexual predators for Dateline NBC exposed hundreds of men who targeted young teenagers over the Internet. KILLER INSTINCT harnesses Hansen’s passion for uncovering the truth in the hope of shedding new light on heartbreaking homicide cases. Through extraordinary access to key witnesses, loved ones, and law enforcement officials, Hansen uses his signature skill for coaxing subjects to open up and guide viewers through every twist and turn of a captivating, unfolding criminal drama. After deconstructing the case, KILLER INSTINCT follows Hansen as he pieces the jigsaw puzzle back together again with added insight drawn from visiting the scene of the crime, interviewing key players, and uncovering never-before-seen archived material.

In the premiere episode, “Nightmare on Imperial Avenue” airing Monday, August 17 at 10/9c, Hansen investigates the shocking case of a serial killer in Cleveland. Eleven women went missing from the streets of the city’s east side, and Vanessa Gay nearly became the twelfth victim in 2008. After randomly meeting Anthony Sowell on the street and accepting an invitation to party at his home, she was raped, badly beaten but lucky to escape with her life when he miraculously let her go. Tips from residents of Imperial Avenue eventually led detectives to a burial ground of female victims at Sowell’s home and a statewide manhunt to track him down. Hansen sits down with Gay for an emotional interview about her traumatizing attack and how it felt to later face him in court. Hansen revisits Sowell’s former neighborhood to speak with residents who knew him, including neighbors who tipped off police to a strange smell coming from his house. Other interviews include Sowell’s half-brother Allan Sowell; family members of victims Tonia Carmichael, Crystal Dozier, and Amelda Hunter; prosecuting attorney Pinkey Carr; prosecution law clerk Christopher Schroeder; and forensic pathologist Dr. Krista Timm.

Other episodes this season include:

· Deadly Love

Monday, August 24 at 10/9c
It was a case that shocked the nation: Carl and Sarah Collier, a religious elderly couple, are stabbed to death in their suburban Atlanta home by their own fifteen-year-old granddaughter, Holly Harvey, and her sixteen-year-old lesbian lover, Sandy Ketchum. Police say that after the Colliers took Harvey off her anti-depression medication and demanded she stopped seeing Ketchum, the two teenage girls hatched a plan to lure the elderly couple into a basement bedroom to commit murder. While the girls go on the run to Tybee Island, Georgia, police use cell phone records to triangulate their location, eventually storming their hiding place and arresting the killers. Today both Harvey and Ketchum remain behind bars in a Georgia prison. Chris Hansen interviews Ketchum’s parents Tim and Beth Ketchum to find out when things went wrong and why their daughter would commit such a ruthless crime.

· A Girl in Need

Monday, August 31 at 10/9c
A call to Delaware county police about an abandoned car leads to the discovery of the body of 23-year-old Deanna Ballman. Toxicology reports indicate she has died of a heroin overdose. When investigators go through Ballman’s phone records, they find she has not been working as a cleaner like her family believed, but rather as a prostitute. One of her clients is Dr. Ali Salim, a respected local doctor with a reputation for saving lives… but he has a dark side and regularly seeks out prostitutes online. A syringe like the ones Dr. Salim’s practice uses is found in Ballman’s purse along with his DNA, leading detectives to suspect Dr. Salim injected her with the fatal drug. They will need concrete proof if they are to convict him of murder, and so their attention turns to the mass amount of data Dr. Salim recently deleted from his phone. When detectives retrieve backed up video images from the iCloud, they make a shocking discovery. Chris Hansen conducts an interview with Ballman’s mother, Lori Ballman to discover how her daughter could have ever become involved in this situation.

· Dark Obsession

Monday, September 7 at 10/9c
When Gary Bain wakes up on the morning of April 26, 2012, he realizes his wife Jo Ann isn’t home. What’s more worrying is that she isn’t responding to repeated calls to her cell. It is only when their three young daughters fail to return from school that Bain’s anxiety turns to severe panic. The police launch a wide-ranging investigation into their disappearance, and information leads them to a house with a gruesome secret: two shallow graves containing the bodies of Jo Ann Bain and her eldest daughter, Adrienne. Investigators now have a suspect, longtime family friend Adam Mayes, but they know that time is running out for them to find the Bains’ other two daughters alive: 12-year-old Alexandria and 8-year-old Kyliah. Everything comes down to a massive manhunt in the dense forests of northern Mississippi. Chris Hansen interviews Jo Ann’s mother, Faye Thompson and Mayes’s mother-in-law, Josie Tait to help unravel the truth and understand the twisted crime that occurred.

· Senseless in Seattle

Monday, September 14 at 10/9c

One of Patrick Fleming’s favorite things to do is show off his $60,000 coin collection to friends in the retirement community where he lives. When he gives new resident Sylvia Sutton and her niece a quick look of his coins, he has no idea he’s just sealed his fate. In reality, Sutton’s “niece” is a Gypsy con woman named Brenda Nicholas, who has already conned her out of her life savings of more than one million dollars and wants more. Nicholas sets her sights on Fleming’s coin collection and recruits two associates to rob and murder him. Following the crime, Seattle homicide detective Cloyd Steiger teams up with fellow detective Pamela St. John from the Seattle P.D.’s Elderly Exploitation Unit, who has been investigating the monetary crimes against Sutton. Together, these seasoned detectives track down Nicholas and finally bring her and her associates to justice for Fleming’s murder. Chris Hansen conducts an emotional interview with Fleming’s fiancée, Rosemary Garnett who was the closest person to Fleming at the time of his murder.

New episodes of KILLER INSTINCT WITH CHRIS HANSEN air Mondays at 10/9c beginning on August 17, with the season concluding on Monday, October 19 at 10/9c.

KILLER INSTINCT WITH CHRIS HANSEN is a co-production between Investigation Discovery and ITN Productions. For ITN Productions, Ian Russell is executive producer and Dick Bower, Kim Flitcroft and Greg Kleinis are series producers. For ID, Diana Sperrazza is senior executive producer, Sara Kozak is senior vice president of production, Kevin Bennett is general manager, and Henry Schleiff is Group President of Investigation Discovery, Destination America, American Heroes Channel, Discovery Family Channel and Discovery Life Channel.